The UpTake: It's the stuff of Charles Dickens: a reclusive billionaire taps an unknown 20-something to run an international media company. Meet Daniel Houghton, the unexpected executive, and an upstart if ever there was one.

Hypothetical: you purchase a once-mighty, now-struggling media franchise for $77 million. Who do you hire to right the ship?

A) A seasoned media executive with a fat rolodex.

B) A digital media upstart with a hit or two under his belt.

C) A 20-something journalism graduate with no management experience piecing together a living as a wedding photographer and digital marketer.

If you're billionaire Brad Kelley, the answer is apparently C. The candidate in question: 25-year-old Daniel Houghton, who Kelley plucked out of obscurity in Bowling Green, Kentucky to make CEO of famed travel-guide company Lonely Planet, which Kelley purchased from the BBC one year ago today.

Freelance journalist Charles Bethea tells the stranger-than-fiction tale in this month's issue of Outside, not your typical destination for media business profiles. Read it here. I've never read a story quite like it.

Like his young protege, Kelley, who made his fortune in the tobacco industry, has never run a content business. The reclusive magnate apparently found Houghton through his personal website. They launched a small digital media company together focused on producing adventure documentaries. Within a year, Kelley purchased Lonely Planet.

Is Houghton any good? It remains to be seen whether or not Kelley is just operating on a higher level than the rest of us when it comes to personnel. Lonely Planet veterans are skeptical. Bethea writes that "There has been no articulation of future strategy other than vague, empty phrases such as 'digital first'" and Houghton is already getting pretty good at aspirational, Silicon Valley speak like "Travel is a force for good." There's also lots of talk about apps and user-generated content.

Alex is a Brooklyn-based freelance journalist. He writes about media entrepreneurs and creatives for Upstart Business Journal.

SHARE THIS STORY

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.